, Columnist
The Fed’s Effect on Black Americans
It's a subject to which the central bank is rightly paying more attention.
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The U.S. Federal Reserve appears to be paying more attention to how its policies affect black Americans. This is a wise move, because blacks stand to gain a lot more than others from the Fed’s efforts to support economic growth.
The minutes of the Fed’s July policy-making meeting noted that officials had discussed unemployment rates and other measures of labor utilization for specific groups, including black Americans. It’s a subject worthy of attention: The black unemployment rate has been about 1.9 times the overall rate for more than 40 years. Here’s how that looks: